Early Concept (Pilot)

Originally, the show Jimmy Two-Shoes was intended to be targeted at a more mature audience. Its initial conception centered around the idea of Jimmy, a well-mannered, do-gooder kid who died in an accident, and was sent to Hell.

Little is known about what the show would do with this concept other than provide mature comedy. The main sources of information for the initial premise are from concept art, rumors, and staff claims. The details herein are ones which attempt to focus on critically analyzing the concept art, and the comments of those who worked on the show.

Contents

A probable population in Hell. Notice Jimmy bringing a smile to an unhappy monster's face.

Exactly how Jimmy met his end is unknown -- but it's often believed that Jimmy was run over by a bus. Regardless how he died, the decision of his after life was accidentally chosen to be Hell. As Hell is often depicted as a place of eternal damnation for very bad people, Jimmy, being an overly optimistic and innocent young boy, would be very out of place. Specifically, Jimmy would seem to be the only good and happy person in the underworlds' population.

From early concept art, it was postulated that such denizens would likely consist of:

Pirates & Vikings

Sock Burglars & Bandits

Crusaders from the holy wars

Evil / Mad Scientists & Monsters

Corrupt Business Men / Wealthy Capitalists

Serial Killers

Even perhaps the inclusion of famous ones (Ex. The clown [bottom] could depict John Wayne Gacy)

Famous horrors from horror movies (Ex. Jason from "Halloween")

Fascist Dictators (Ex. Hitler)

And hellish creatures such as Demons and Imps

For Jimmy, Hell is a fresh and new place to explore and enjoy. Much like the premise of the current show, Jimmy makes it his mission to put a smile on everyone's face, despite how almost the entire population is made of evil people.

A big part of why J2S would be unsuitable for a young audience was it's graphic slapstick.

One of his main method's of doing so is exploiting the fact that he, like the rest of the people in hell, are 'undead'. Meaning any and all damage sustained by the cast would only inflict pain, including those which would be fatal. Should a character 'die', from their injuries, they would be brought back to life in hell. Jimmy uses this gimmick to entertain himself, and others by hurting / exploiting injuries on his body in amusing ways.

Personality wise, Jimmy seems largely unchanged from his early concept, and his depiction in the aired show. There are a few noticeable differences, but most of which consist of the changes in Jimmy's attire, other than his 'undead' ability. Concept art and model sheets depict Jimmy wearing a light gray dress shirt, a dark gray bow-tie, brown slacks and pointy dress shoes. Additionally, no detail is present in Jimmy's ears.

Jimmy would often be seen as a nuisance to Hell's ruler: Lucifer (nicknamed 'Lucy'). As to his design, Lucy makes the underworld a place of eternal suffering and misery; those who were sent to Hell, were determined to deserve punishment for their sins.

This behavior is similar to his depiction in the aired show: ruler of Miseryville, and CEO of Misery Inc - distributor of horrible and nasty products to make the population miserable.

To combat Jimmy's overwhelming positive nature, Lucy instructs Heloise, the spirit of a serial killer and Jimmy's neighbour, to torture him. Even with her horrible, endless attempts to make him miserable, Heloise wouldn't stop Jimmy from making fun of every situation he was thrown in. Eventually, Heloise would develop a crush on Jimmy, and often switch between loving and torturing him.

This behavior is also similar to her depiction in the aired show, discounting her origin as a serial killer, and adding her hyper intelligence and her position at Misery Inc.

There is no knowledge of any story that was planned to structure the series. It's existence is possible, but it's likely the current show reflects what early episodes were planned to be: Miscellaneous adventures featuring graphic humour, with possible satire.

There are a few animation tests known to exist that demonstrated the idea of the show with its early concepts. The videos of these tests have never been released, but there are three known screenshots that likely belong to the demo reels.

According to Edward Kay, co-creator of Jimmy Two Shoes, and Phil Postma, original designer for the concept, the pilot was actually a six-minute non-for-air demo made and paid for by one of the investors. Originally made as an exclusive Teletoon production for the studios' tween demographic at the time, the hell references and other mature elements were removed and aged down once the U.S. broadcasters for Disney XD came on board, as they we're aiming for a more conservative market. The designs we're also altered as the producers didn't like them. Although it is speculated that Charlie Schlatter was the voice of Jimmy, and Jessica DiCicco the voice of Heloise, Kaye confirmed Cory Doran indeed voice Jimmy in the demo.

One screenshot has been said to exist which depicts Jimmy with Beezy, who wears tiger-stripped shorts. This image has yet to be found.

Through very few known images, the gradual change from the early concept themes to the final concept can be seen. Early promotional images and character shots show Jimmy wearing his finalized attire, with early designs of other characters.

Most of these pictures are very small changes to the look of other characters, and they neither fully confirm nor disconfirm the possibility that the show changed from the mature themes.

Beezy makes an appearance in this image, which explains that he was designed as a character to be along side Jimmy and Heloise in this development stage. Yet this does not confirm that Beezy was planned during the earlier stages -- when Jimmy wore his older attire. It also doesn't exactly confirm that his personality shown in the final show would be the same, as with the rest of the cast.

Little is known about what specific areas would be included within the underworld, other than what was included in the aired show. Most of these scenes were done by Joshua Gay. Other concepts can be found here.